Clunky When Wet

I'm new to the Tundra life but no stranger to vehicle maintenance. Lately, I've been noticing a nerve wracking "clunk" when making turns in my Tundra. Weird thing is, the old boy only makes noises like that in wet weather. I was thinking it could be the ball joints, but the PO said they had been replaced not too long ago. I'm not sure whether to believe him or not since he did some real wonky things with other repairs. Not sure what else it could be though. 2001 AC 4.7L V8 with brand new frame if that helps.

 

Have you greased your drive shaft? You lazy sod

Assuming 4x4 by your location

 

Yeah, he's a 4x4. I haven't lately, but this is my first time getting any real road time after the frame replacement and exhaust repairs. Guess that's the first thing to check?

 

Its a good place to start. Wouldnt hurt to check the trans mount & carrier bearing while youre under there. Dunno why anything would be different while wet. Also check the sway bar links.

 

I'll keep it in mind and add it to the ever growing laundry list. I need to replace a cracked wheel and assess how bad the bed is rusted through so I can probably get those checked while I'm under there

 

Check all the bolts in all the cross members, AFTER you check on that cracked wheel. Forget the bed, if your wheel finishes the crack, and you careen at speed, nose first into an embankment, or semi truck, there won't be much point in fixing the wet wub sounds. You'll be lucky to walk away.

 

Didn't realize it was that serious. My mechanic kinda downplayed it. Got a good place to find wheels reasonably priced? I looked through the buy/sell/trade forum a bit but didn't find much help there.

 

It depends on the Crack, it depends on if steel wheels or aluminum. The severity depends on many factors.

However, sight unseen, with only a brief description to go off of, I assume the worst.

You can find steel rims on rockauto, but for alloy wheels, you may be able to find something local on Facebook or Craigslist from cheap with rubber already on it

 

Throw up some pictures. We'd all love to see that Imperial Jade Mica.

 

I'm not sure which metal type it is. I'll attach some photos when I get off work in a couple hours, but for the moment, I'll go ahead and peruse rockauto and see what I can find.

 

He's a handsome guy, if a bit rough around the edges

 

Fair enough! I'm on the company computer too No worse than my truck, I had a frame replacement too. Crackie is rough as a corncob shoved up the tail pipe, dry. Exterior wise, but he's a runner. You can see the build thread here, there's a ton of BS up in this link, but good info too.

 

Looks good to my eyes. The paint job is immaculate

 

Thanks, I've never washed it. The dirt is UV protective, and adds MPG.

 

Leaf spring spacers as well... Clunk!

 

If he used anything other than OEM on the lowers you're on borrowed time if it's been 10k miles or more.

 

I don't know if they were OEM or not but he said he'd had them replaced not too long ago and he wasn't really driving it by that point. Old farm truck for an even older man tends not to see much drive time.

 

The non OEM lowers can come apart without warning (usually) with very little mileage. I'd put these on your list to replace soon unless you had documented proof of what brand was used.

Here's the post for part numbers
https://www.tundras.com/threads/lower-ball-joints-part-numbers.97100/page-7#post-3684945

 

I can't be the only one saying to myself "Thread title sounds like the worst Bon Jovi album title ever."

 

LBJ failure is real


https://www.tundras.com/threads/first-gen-lower-ball-joint-lbj-failures.141860/

 

Here's the old boy in the flesh. Plus the wheel mentioned previously.

 

That look almost like the Ultra wheels that were popular back in the 80s/90s but it also looks like what came on older T4R?

 

I'd believe it if they were that old. I can't find any real identifying data on them thanks to the weathering.

 

American Racing AR-136 circa 1996, it would appear to me.

 

Minus the centerpieces, that looks right. Definitely time to replace them in that case. Even without the cracked one.

 

Take a look on Facebook marketplace for wheels. That's where I find sets most of the time. Wheels from newer Tacomas and such will fit too. If you're unsure if a set will fit post them up on here or take a look around at the various wheel threads.

 

May've also been the AR-33 (top right in that pic) which came in 16x7 and 17x8. But like, with the AR-136 and AR-33, it's misleading (1) because of the center cap, and (2) the length/shape of the spokes varies based on diameter, and (3) how flat the center is also varies based on bolt pattern.

One good example of this with the AR-136 specifically, check out this 15" with 5-lug and how wildly different it looks from the pictures up there: https://www.ebay.com/p/1923040301

It still reminds me of a wheel that Ultra, Prime, US Wheel or maybe even Progressive (although I feel like PW was mostly more angular wheels) would've made back in the late 80s/90s